WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday defended the Justice Department’s secret examination of Associated Press phone records though he declared he had played no role in it, saying it was justified as part of an investigation into a grave national security leak.

The government obtained the records from April and May of 2012 for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists, including main offices.

Federal officials have said investigators are trying to hunt down the sources of information for a May 7, 2012, AP story that disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot around the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Holder said he removed himself from the leaked-information probe because he himself had been interviewed by FBI agents as part of the investigation. It was the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who made the decision to seek news media phone records.

“This was a very serious leak, a very grave leak” that “put the American people at risk,” Holder said.

GOP National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called on Holder to resign, saying he had “trampled on the First Amendment.”

Declared the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Rep. Steny Hoyer: “This is activity that should not have happened and must be checked from happening again.”

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